The Eternal Sleep

Luca's Great Introduction...

    He sighed as he pulled his hood over his head, the soft pitter patter of rain reaching his ears. The noisy city quieted as if in respect to the blessings of the cool, afternoon rain. The school day had finally come to an end, students milling about, waiting on a parent, a friend or simply for the rain to pass.

    Luca, however, could only feel trepidation for the idea of going home. It was late enough that his family would be home. He did not like the idea of an entertaining two hours being having a seat near a table and listening to his mother praise her stepson for his university goals and accomplishments.

    He looked around, the muted, grey skies and low sounds of passing cars mercifully distracted him from the loudness of his thoughts. A boisterous shout catches his attention and turning his head, he spots a young child waving to an older woman, possibly his mother, with pure joy on his face. Luca thought of being in that position, the world narrowed to just you and your parent or guardian, no worries, no fighting, just innocent joy.

    It’d been a while since he’d felt this powerful longing well up in his chest. He smiled sadly, trained his eyes to the ground and made his way home through the empty streets. Nothing has been the same since his mother married his stepfather a couple months ago. Luca was understanding when he’d learnt his mother had a boyfriend, happy to see the look of pure delight on her face as she talked about him, Luca even met him many times… but being present in their life and being a part of it happened to be two very different things.

    Luca never had any issues with Sean, he was a very kind and understanding man, willing to go above and beyond to keep his mother happy. Jasper, his son, was very easy to talk to, someone close to his age that he could hold an easy conversation with relatable topics. Luca never really felt any connection with them, however, not like his mother did. There was always a mild distance between him and the others, like standing on two opposite sides of a small river.

    His father walked out when he was twelve, and he’d spent five trying to keep the smile on his mother’s face. After seeing his mother at her lowest points, he silently made the decision to always bring home the highest marks, keep himself out of trouble and never complain, trying his best to make things a little bit easier. He’d ignored the small number of friends he had so that he could spend more time with her and helping her out.

    Since Sean and Jasper had walked into their lives, however, one thing had led to another and suddenly, it felt like he was being swept under a rug and forgotten. His mother went from happily chatting with him to Luca being happy if he even got a sentence of acknowledgment. It was like black had turned white and the world was upside down.

    It’s not like he hadn’t tried to fit in, any attempts to speak to Jasper was mostly a quiet affair. Being a young adult, his stepbrother often preferred chatting to his friends online or watching shows that made little to no sense to Luca. Conversations with Sean would always trail off into awkwardness due to their lack of chatting skill, Luca knew nothing of sports and Sean knew nothing about the technological advancements appearing in modern society.

    The day his mother told him that the wedding was coming up, he’d thrown a fit. He knew he was wrong, but he hadn’t even known that they were engaged, and even less, ready to marry. What made his dispute worst, he’d easily learnt that he’d been the last to know, every other family member and friend had been aware to some degree.

    The argument was loud, starting as a simple question and ending with a yelling match between Sean and himself. Despite living in the same apartment, Luca has hardly talked since, both indignant and shaken at the fury he’d seen on Sean’s face that night. He’d avoided the trio as much as he could, staying in his room or late at school. Sean often tried to start a conversation with him again, but it always ended in deadpanned responses, Luca was terrified of the backlash from his mother if he’d used the sarcasm ingrained in his personality.

    Luca took a moment to brace himself before he opened the door to his apartment. He was surprised for a moment to hear the absence of lively chatting or the sounds of the television, it was silent. He walked in slowly, and to his surprise, the apartment was empty. Significantly more relaxed, he walked in, intending to head straight to his room upstairs, when a note on the counter caught his eye.

    Interesting, his mother had decided to take a late-night shift at the restaurant. Much less interesting, his stepfather was on a trip to pick up Jasper so that he could spend the weekend with them. He pondered why they didn’t just send him a text message but just shook his head to clear the irritated thought.

    ‘Must have been why is mother decided to take the late-night shift, there was no one of interest home.’, he believed. He sighed and chucked the note in the bin, grabbing a cookie from the jar at the end of the counter and headed to his room.

    He tossed his bag at the foot of his desk, accidentally knocking over the small bin and leaned himself heavily on the chair. Absentmindedly, he booted up his computer and grabbed his VR headset from the shelf above him. Luca had the house to himself and he could do his homework tomorrow. For now, however, all he wanted to do was kill some time and frustration.

    The game was already open from his game-play last night, the chat launched to reveal a single message for the day, ‘Had half day of school today, if anybody’s free I’m at Willow’s town Centre.’ It was from Jay, his online friend that insisted on being his best friend. No one from the group of five had responded, so it seemed like time to give Jay some company.

‘I’m here, two minutes, wait for me at the edge.’ : Luca

    Luca pushed back from the table, switching on the REM sleep headgear and cleared his bed of his books before lying down comfortably on his back. He slipped the head piece securely over his head and waited for the real world to fade around him.

    Taking him to a place where he felt far more powerful, much more important, and a lot more at home.

    The Eternal Sleep was a game created by the most technologically advanced gaming company, Black Crown Industries and its owner, Naijal Sun. It was the highest rated game and headgear of the decade. The Luna Gear’s headset used specified brain waved to send the users into a form of lucid dreaming where they would be able to access the game as though they were still in a form of reality.

    Aidan Jhonnes, the creator’s right-hand man, created the heart and soul of the game they centered the gear around, ‘The Eternal Sleep’. It was essentially an advanced version of a social media platform. This was a world where you could customize how you looked, interact with people from around the real world,  while fighting monsters, earning medals and coins and doing anything you loved without the real world’s social standards, traditions and flaws.

    Luca had been hooked on the game since it was released to the stores, a year ago. He’d build himself a place where he felt safe and strong. At the beginning, he resembled a lone wolf, taking on quests and earning both coins and a name by himself. That was until he met Jay at least, the guy insisted on getting himself in trouble on every quest he took. Eventually, Luca began helping him out a couple times and finally Luca became close enough friends with him to share his real name.

    Along the way, he met others, people kind of like him, who used the game as a place to get away from the real world. They formed a small team, doing whatever made them most happy and comfortable in their own form. Olivia, the best racer they knew, Rena, a street artist and high-risk photographer, and Armando, the smartest person that they knew.